"Forgive me Miss Akeirra, but if your trust though touch truly works I wish to see this for myself. " Vakarr said as he stuck his hand back out.

Akeirra looked down at his hand, a little uncertainly. "Didn't say trust. Said telepathy. I'm in early stages development, manifests as telepathy-by-touch only. And even then, not much information. We exchange names, scattered images, fragments of surface thought, snippets of native language."

She glanced again at Per'dra. "Curious Per'dra got nothing. I had hoped..." She sighed. "My connection to the Network, my aversion to the Purge, these things I hoped would transfer. But they didn't. You're different somehow."

Turning back to Vakarr, she sighed. "I honor your request."

After one final moment of hesitation, she placed her bare hand in Vakarr's waiting one. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, a faint tingling sensation rushed up Vakarr's arm and things he had never known were suddenly there in his mind.

With a yelp of pain, Akeirra drew her hand away, bringing both of them up to massage her forehead. "Sorry, Vakarr," she groaned. "I had to terminate connection. For you, a slight tingling. For me, raging headache."

Perhaps her pain fueled it, but she seemed even more agitated now. "No time to lose. Purge will be drawn aside by ferryman's pyre. Not long though. Time to be moving."